Can I put the record straight regarding the comments from Dennis Lane (No Safer Streets, 26.5.04)?

Dennis is a long-time member of Middlesbrough Labour Party. He has served with the Middlesbrough Council Labour Group on a number of occasions (including the period when the Lancet inquiry was "live") as a constituent Labour Party representative and district party representative.

Bearing in mind those facts, he cannot offer political ignorance as an excuse for the very serious inaccuracies contained in his latest attack on myself and the police authority as a whole.

Mr Lane, who I feel constantly seek to misrepresent the actions, responsibilities and roles of the police authority, knows full well that I, as the chair of the police authority, have no direct control or legal powers over disciplinary procedures directly relating to any police officer rank under Assistant Chief Constable.

What, therefore, the Gazette and your readers should seriously contemplate is why Dennis Lane and other individuals continue in their attempts to mislead the public with "smear tactics" and attempts to maintain the myth that I was personally responsible for the instigation and running of the Lancet inquiry.

For the record, neither myself nor any other members of the authority are involved in current internal police inquiries relating to serving police officers. However, the authority can, and does, exercise its right to question the Chief Constable's actions and, where necessary, hold him to account.

Whether Mr Lane wants to accept these facts or not, they are the legally binding regulations under which any police authority and its chair must operate.